Nasa's New Invention May Reduce Car Pollution

December 12, 2002|By DAVE SCHLECK Daily Press

HAMPTON — NASA Langley has turned a surplus piece of space technology into a better, cheaper way to clean up car exhaust. It may mean that by late next year, some cars will be producing 30 percent less pollution, NASA officials say.

The research centers around a device called a catalytic converter -- a chemical hot box that sits between the car's engine and the tailpipe. It turns poisonous gases into less-harmful ones.

Today's catalytic converter doesn't work when the engine is cold. Until the temperature gauge rises, pollutants escape, causing smog and acid rain.

NASA discovered a way to get the converter to work right away.

It started several years ago, when NASA was developing a satellite laser to study Earth's atmosphere from space. The laser had a special type of catalytic converter that worked in the cold vacuum of space.

As the name implies, catalytic converters use a catalyst to speed things up. In cars, that catalyst is platinum and palladium. NASA replaced the palladium with a less-expensive metal, and that switch enabled the catalytic converter to work in cold temperatures.

NASA eventually decided to use a different type of laser for its atmospheric studies, but a team of scientists led by Jeff Jordan continued to research ways to use the technology in cars and other applications. They found that if this new type of catalyst was used, catalytic converters in cars could start cleansing exhaust fumes before the engine heats up.

NASA, which funded about a tenth of the research, spent about $500,000 on the project, said Frank Farmer, technology commercialization project manager. NASA has licensed the catalytic converter technology to a small New York company called Airflow Catalyst Systems.

Hugh Ogle, Airflow's vice president, said he expects to have the new converters on the car-parts market by the end of 2003.

They will be the same size and shape as traditional converters, so they can be retrofitted onto older cars.

An added bonus to their efficiency will be their cost -- about 25 percent less than current converters, Ogle said.

The new converters will have to compete with other environmentally friendly technology, said Eron Shosteck of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association of major car and truck producers.

"Our industry spends $18.4 billion a year on research and development," Shosteck said. The hottest technology is fuel cell, which uses electricity to power vehicles instead of gasoline. Fuel-cell vehicles will not need catalytic converters.

But Ogle said it will take decades for fuel-cell cars to take hold of the market.

"Catalytic converters, as well as the internal combustible engine, will be here for a long time," Ogle said.

Dave Schleck can be reached at 247-7430 or by e-mail at dschleck@dailypress.com